Intravascular catheters are widely used to deliver a variety of medical devices to a target location within a patient. Many catheters include an intermediate braided layer that provides sufficient strength to provide torque transmission and to prevent the catheter from kinking while being advanced within the patient. A catheter can also be visualized using radiographic techniques such as fluoroscopy by incorporating radiopaque materials into the materials. It is common to incorporate a larger percentage of radiopaque materials in the distal tip than in other regions of the catheter. In addition, the distal end of a catheter is frequently required to be more flexible than the rest of the catheter to prevent damage to the vasculature as it is advanced through the patient.
One method of cutting, or trimming, a catheter distal tip to a desired length is to place a pin inside of the distal end of the catheter and to simply roll the catheter on a level surface while pressing a sharp edge (e.g., a razor blade) into contact with the catheter. The cutting element thereby trims the distal end of the catheter to the specified length. After cutting the catheter, the pin is removed, a measurement is taken of the distal tip of the catheter, and the process is repeated if necessary to bring the distal tip dimension length into tolerance. This method can result in non-square cuts (cuts that are not perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the catheter), debris remaining on the distal end, and inaccurate distal tip lengths.
What is needed is a cutting tool that can create a square cut while accurately and reliably cutting distal tips of catheters to a specified length without necessarily using visual markers as a datum for measurement.